‘University curricula must be relevant’
The Minister of Education, Prof. Naana Jane Opoku-Agyemang, has asked universities to design programmes and curricula that will be relevant to the job market to help address the challenge of unemployed graduates.
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She said it was not enough to criticise the government for graduate unemployment when the subject affected various stakeholders including the university community.
Addressing the 17th Congregation of the University for Development Studies (UDS) at the Wa Campus last Saturday, she asked the university authorities to examine the academic curricular to enable students to have a broader knowledge and understanding of issues.
She said there was overemphasis on specialisation at the undergraduate level, stressing that "the whole thing about under-graduate studies is to have options".
University’s research
The Vice Chancellor of the university, Prof. Gabriel Ayum Teye, appealed to the private sector to support the university’s research works.
Lamenting that "support from the government for research activities is grossly inadequate", Prof. Teye urged financial institutions to intervene to enable the university to make its mandate relevant.
He said the question of unemployed graduates should be a concern for industry as much as for government, adding, "It is important for industry to join the government in owning the unemployment problem in the country and not leave it solely to the government".
He called on industry to join the universities so that together with the government they could ‘generally work to solve the challenges facing both the universities and industry".
Unemployed graduates
He said "given the high rate of unemployed graduates, it is important to adopt public-private partnership", especially in the training of graduates, to make them relevant to industry.
"This is why industry and the universities must work together to adapt the curriculum to the needs of industry so that graduates leave the university ready for work," he said.
"It is for this reason that I invite industry players to join us in UDS through public-private partnership to become active stakeholders in the training of our graduates. Industry needs to play an increasing role in the activities of the universities so that together we can nurture the talent they need.
"If the university should make any impact on society and stay relevant to the needs of the global community, then research must be its focus," he said.
"This is why the university continues to encourage and support both teaching and non-teaching staff to engage in research work,§v" he added.
Some 1,789 diploma, undergraduate and postgraduate students graduated from the Wa Campus of the University last Saturday.
Mr Nathan Tetteh, the only First Class student among the Bachelor of Science and Planning class, was adjudged the overall best among the undergraduate students on the Wa Campus.
